Sunnite Teaching Dominates Textbooks For Religion

Having inspected the textbooks for the mandatory Culture of Religion and Morals course, Turkey’s Education and Science Workers Union (Eğitim-Sen) has announced that the textbooks still reflect solely Islam’s Sunnite teaching.

Zübeyde Kılıç, President of Eğitim-Sen, claims that no changes were made in the course program, the textbooks for the grades 4, 5, 6, 9 and 10 were republished with the same content and some parts of the textbooks for grades 7, 8 and 11 were rewritten.

Confronting the decisions of the European Human Rights Court (EHRC) and the State Council that the mandatory religion courses were a human rights violation, the government claimed previously that since the curriculum was changed the mandatory religion course would continue.

The Alevite organizations, especially, have launched a series of activities demanding implementation of the court decisions and removal of the mandatory religion courses.

The union demands the immediate removal of the mandatory religion courses from the curriculum. (EÜ/TB)